Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2009
1
62
Trip End
Jul 09, 2009
Puno, Peru
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Once we arrived at Taquila island we walked to a small restaurant where we were going to have lunch. Before the meal was served, we had a demonstration of traditional weaving, and washing clothes using local plants.
After lunch we got back on the boat, but before we were due to leave, there was the chance to go swimming in the lake. Now although today was hot and sunny, the temperature of the water is only ever within a few degrees above 10°C. Which is cold! After jumping in I found myself struggling to breathe. After a few minutes my body became numb and so the temperature became more bearable. I swam around the boat for a few minutes more then decided to get out before hypothermia set in! This is when the cold really kicked in - with a slight breeze, as I was sitting in my swim shorts trying to get dry, I was so cold that I couldn't stop shivering, when normally I don't feel the cold! Even after putting my clothes back on and putting on a fleece I still didn't get warm for about half an hour.
The boat was now supposed to take us to another island, Amantaní. However the boat's engine would not start! Half an hour of the pilot trying to coax some life back into the engine was fruitless, so he had to phone somebody to get another boat to come and pick us up! Mobile phones can come in useful sometimes...
We are staying with families on Amantaní island overnight, two of us per family. The standard of the families' houses varies - some people have got showers, electricity and flushing toilets; David and I have had no such luck. The bathroom consists of an outhouse with a toilet bowl in it and a bucket of water to act as the flush mechanism; the only running water is from a hose outside; and we certainly don't have the luxury of electricity or heating! But this is all part of the homestay experience; at least the beds are comfortable.
After being shown to our respective homestays and settling in, we all met up at the football pitch in the centre of the village, half-way up a hill. As if it wasn't enough of a struggle just to climb the steps to get there at this altitude, the locals offered to give us a game. So we had a six-a-side match, which we won by a small margin, but probably only because a) it was dark by now and whereas we were running around carrying torches, the locals had none, and b) I think they let us win anyway! This felt rather surreal, playing football with some Peruvians, half-way up a hill on an island on Lake Titicaca at over 3,800 metres above sea level, in the dark!
Dinner was had back at our homestays, At mine and David's homestay they cook their meals by candlelight over a wood fire on the bare floor, in one corner of the kitchen. It felt as if we had been transported back in time several hundred years! The food was OK though; soup for starters followed by a dish of rice and vegetables.
After dinner there was a party at the village, which the locals hold whenever they have guests staying overnight with families on the island, as we are doing. For this we were supposed to dress up in traditional Andean dress which the families provided for us - for the men, a loose-fitting colourful woollen coat and a similar woollen hat; for the women, a relatively plain dress and black head-scarf. They love dancing here, so this was the main theme of the party. There was a small bar in the village hall where the party was being held but there was hardly any time to grab a drink in between dances! By the end of the night we were all exhausted, from the combination of the energetic dancing and the altitude!
